Nearly 20,000 cattle die in fire at dairy farm

DIMMITT, Texas (KFDA/Gray News) - Texas officials say thousands of cattle have died in a fire at a dairy farm.

KFDA reports that upwards of 18,000 cattle died in the fire that started Monday night at the South Fork Dairy.

Officials said only a small percentage of the animals at the facility survived the fire with them having been moved to a separate area.

According to Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera, an explosion occurred at the farm as the fire spread to a building where the cattle were being held.

“There’s some that survived, there’s some that are probably injured to the point where they’ll have to be destroyed,” Rivera said.

The Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office reports it is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire. Rivera said it appears the fire may have started from a machine overheating that ignited the explosion.

A woman working there was injured. She was taken to an area hospital in critical condition. The sheriff’s office said all other workers at the farm have been accounted for.

According to the Animal Welfare Institute, the blaze is the deadliest fire regarding cattle deaths since the team started tracking barn fires in 2013.

“We strongly encourage farms to adopt common-sense fire safety measures. It is hard to imagine anything worse than being burned alive,” said Margie Fishman, with the institute.

The sheriff’s office reports the fire likely spread through the insulation of the building with all areas suffering some sort of damage.

Officials said cleanup at the farm remains an ongoing process.